The Writing in the Letter
by Marcus S. Lazarus
Summary: Seeking to learn Crane's true secret, Brennan shares a few key details of Booth's past with the enigmatic 'historical expert'


Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you know the routine by now.

Feedback: Always appreciated

AN: Another addition to my 'Angel of the Bones' series- based around the idea that Seeley Booth is the human identity of Angel, the vampire with a soul- this one set between the two episodes of the recent _Bones_ / _Sleepy Hollow_ crossover; the idea of incorporating that world into this series just seemed to work

AN 2: Reference is made to another one-shot in this series involving Christopher Pelant at the end of the eighth season; you can find the results of that one in 'The Spell and the Hacker'

The Writing on the Letter

Even entering her third year of marriage, it still amazed Brennan how easily she'd adapted to the idea that her husband was over three hundred years old and had spent the vast majority of that time as a reanimated corpse.

It wasn't something she actively thought about much, of course- Booth didn't even use anything from that part of his life any more, expect in exceptional circumstances- but there were times when she appreciated the fresh insight he'd brought to her world. She still had her doubts about how magic actually 'worked', even after such instances as Pelant's death to provide further evidence that the whole thing was viable under the right circumstances, but she preferred not to consider it as an explanation for everything unusual she and Booth encountered in their work. Booth had assured her that he'd tell her if a case involved magic, and so far there'd been no reason for him to bring that up.

Right now, however, faced with a man who dressed and acted like he was from a couple of centuries in the past, coupled with a letter in Ichabod Crane's handwriting that had clearly been written two centuries ago, the apparently impossible option made more sense than Crane's 'suggestion' that handwriting could be 'inherited'.

"You wanted to see me, Doctor Brennan?" Ichabod Crane asked, walking into her office with a politely inquiring smile.

"Mr Crane," Brennan said, standing up to stare directly at the British 'historian' with a firm manner even as she walked over to close the office door behind him, "would you care to explain how you have lived for over two hundred years?"

"Excuse me?" Crane said, looking at her in surprise. "I believed that we had already speculated-"

"No, you _suggested_ that handwriting was an inherited trait because you believed I wouldn't accept the idea that anyone could actually have lived that long," Brennan corrected, as she continued to stare firmly at the other man. "However, between the two of us, now that we're in the most private part of the Jeffersonian, I wondered if you would change your mind if I informed you that my husband is actually almost three hundred years old?"

If it had been any other scenario, Brennan would never have made such a statement even as a joke, but Crane's shocked stare in response to her statement was all the confirmation she needed that she had struck metaphorical gold.

"Truly?" Crane said, looking at her sceptically. "And… how did he accomplish such a feat?"

"That depends."

"On what?"

"On whether you tell me the truth this time," Brennan continued, folding her arms as she studied the strange man. "I'm assuming that you actually _wrote_ the letter you found, correct?"

"…Indeed," Crane said, displaying no more than the hesitation Brennan had come to expect when faced with a man used to keeping the truth secret.

"So how did you come to be here?"

"I was… slain in battle by the Horseman of Death," Crane elaborated, looking at her in a careful manner that Brennan correctly deduced was him looking for some sign that she'd dismiss him as some nut. "However, before I… passed on… a spell was cast that bound me to his fate; as a result, when he was… brought back… a few years ago, I was reborn as well."

"Reborn?" Brennan repeated, looking at him in surprise as she remembered some of Booth's other tales. "You mean… you were actually _dead_?"

"Apparently," Crane said, shrugging slightly at the memory. "I do not actually recall anything of what I experienced while I was… deceased, but I attribute that to the exceptional circumstances of the whole affair; as I said, once the Horseman was reborn, the same thing happened to me."

"Of course," Brennan said, nodding in acknowledgement. "That… fits my own experiences, certainly."

"You have experience of the supernatural yourself?" Crane asked.

"Only a few encounters," Brennan said, his casual acceptance making it easy for her to respond with the same. "In a nutshell… Booth… used to be a vampire."

She tried not to smile at the sight of Crane looking so completely caught off-guard at that statement.

"A… a _vampire_?" the former British soldier repeated incredulously. "He _was_ a vampire?"

"It's… a very long story," Brennan said, suddenly uncomfortable at the thought of sharing Booth's history with someone without his explicit permission. "For now, I'll just say that his soul was returned to him by a curse over a century ago, and a few years back, he… fulfilled a prophecy that resulted in him being restored to a living human status."

"A _curse_ restored his soul?" Crane asked uncertainly. "Why would that be a curse?"

"Because the standard vampire is basically a… demonic spirit… inhabiting a human corpse," Brennan explained, wishing that she hadn't brought that part of the story up even if she was now committed to explaining it. "In Booth's case, the curse restored his soul and his capacity for compassion… but it also restored his ability to feel guilty about what the spirit had done when his soul wasn't there."

"Ah," Crane said, nodding in new understanding. "Shall I assume that true vampires more closely match the realities of Mr Stoker than that depicted by Miss Meyer?"

"Booth's opinion of that series is… not very high," Brennan acknowledged, trying to suppress the slight grin she felt when she remembered Booth's reaction to those novels; he'd varied from incredulity to disgust at the concept of vampires being that cultured or tortured about their immortal nature, and then made her promise to never read anything by that author again.

"The point I'm making," she said, turning her attention back to the matter at hand, "is that Booth has a past in that world, but he… doesn't like to discuss it much; I wouldn't even have learned of it myself if we hadn't been attacked by… well, that's something Booth should share with you himself."

"I see," Crane said, nodding in solemn understanding before he smiled slightly at her. "In any case, it is… gratifying to see you so accepting of something so unusual."

"After everything I said in the lab, you mean?" Brennan asked, smiling slightly in understanding. "I still default to science for an explanation most of the time, but I… well, I'm aware that there are more things in the world than science can readily explain; I just don't go there unless I've exhausted all other options."

"A suitable approach in places such as this, I am sure," Crane smiled solemnly. "I only wish that I could do the same so easily…"

His grim expression would have prompted Brennan to ask what he had to deal with back in Sleepy Hollow under other circumstances, but considering that he had already mentioned that he had been brought back to life with the Horseman of Death, she had a feeling that she wouldn't want to know more.

If Crane asked for help dealing with some crisis or another, she was sure that she and Booth would be willing to provide it, but for the moment, Booth had enough issues with that part of his life without them willingly exposing themselves to the supernatural all over again if they weren't _needed_ …


End file.
